Making Friends and Rocking out

Being a younger mom can be a lonely land. Being an extremely geeky home school mom is a whole other level. For the first few years I tried like hell to fit in with the other moms, but in the end I realized I want my children to embrace themselves and to set that example I had to do the same thing. For me this means embracing my hobbies and geekness and living it up in cosplay heaven. Luckily I live in LA, which, when one searches, can provide no end of the strange and unusual. On a jont to one of my favorite geektastic establishments, one Whimsically in Hollyweird, I came across a card for an adult Harry Potter fan group. I checked it out online but most of the activities took place in the city and it just wasn't in the cards for me. Fast forward a year and I am at my first geek convention ( not counting Star Trek conventions and the Ren Faire) Comicazi. Checking out voice talent, comic artists and fellow geek cosplayers I came across the table of the same group, Los Angeles Dumbledore's Army. I met and chatted with three very cool people and felt more inspired to get into the group. Logging on to find the book club within the group was reading the same book I was currently reading I bite the bullet and joined up. Its never been terribly easy for me to find people who speak my language, but within an hour with just a portion of the group I had found more kindred spirits than I had in years of park days and play dates. Beach Party dueling and great social media conversations and I am in geek heaven. LADA turned out to be a group of some of the raddest people I have met. Every one filled with the love and friendship one would imagine on the Hogwarts express. Every new face friendly and open. And they don't just love the Potter, virtually any obscure reference I espouse will undoubtedly be met with at least one nod of understanding. So, last night, thanks to my wonderful husband who totally supports my geek habit, I joined my fellow Potter Geeks at the Troubadour  in Hollywood to rock out to some wizard rock and watch a puppet show. Don't hate, these puppets will have you rolling in your seats. Side note for Home school pride; I learned of the puppet pals years ago because the creator was home schooled.

Anyway, I donned my So Cali summer wizard garb, my husband his top hat, and we set off. Approaching the line I found a couple of very cool LADA members, and I was home. Being able to express ones self with abandon is truly a freeing experience, and finding others with which you can do so is even better. A few other people joined us in line and in no time I was inadvertently recruiting for the Army, and they were glad to be recruited! We took our seats, ordered our drinks, and chatted away in eager anticipation of the promised wizard awesomeness. I even saw a few other home schoolers hanging around, but the coolest was yet to come. As the minutes ticked by, the Troubedour filled ever so slowly, until the lights dimmed and looking down I saw the place was PACKED!! the red and gold for Gryffindor house was, of course, prominent.

There were graying old couples, finicky nursing toddlers and rawking Hufflepunks. I was touched, as lame as that may sound, by the sheer number of those in attendance. Everyone of us there because of a book. Ok, well, seven books. Everyone of us touched by the story of the boy who lived and those who loved him. In true form the Puppets of the Potter Puppet Pals delivered a fabulously funny show, to which many of the audience sang along. Then Harry and the Potters took the stage and rocked that place like a...something magical and rocking...leaving the crowd wanting more. The encore song, an epic ballad to our great and lost leader, Albus Dumbledore, nearly brought tears to my eyes as I was filled with the love in the room, the love that comes for a mutual understanding of what matters in this world, a shared love of life and of a book. A BOOK!! Do you have any idea how freaking awesome that is?!? For me, a girl who once found her friends solely in the pages of books, to find myself surrounded by literally hundreds of others who are like me. Well, lets just say when the songs came to an end and I bid my new friends good bye I was at once sorry to see them go and eager for the next time we would geek out to the extreme. J.K nailed it when she wrote of the importance of finding friends, friends who like you no matter how much of a dork you are, or better yet, those who will don cloaks and carry wands and play wizards right along side you, even if you're all proper grown ups.